"What a wonderfully clever woman! I must get to the bottom of her heart." "Your little lady is decidedly handsome," said the Marquise to the secretary; "now if she only had your name." "Yes, her defect is that she is the daughter of an auctioneer.

She will fail for want of birth," replied des Lupeaulx, with a cold manner that contrasted strangely with the ardor of his remarks about Madame Rabourdin not half an hour earlier.
The marquise looked at him fixedly.
"The glance you gave them did not escape me," she said, motioning towards the minister and Madame Rabourdin; "it pierced the mask of your spectacles.

How amusing you both are, to quarrel over that bone!" As the marquise turned to leave the room the minister joined her and escorted her to the door.
"Well," said des Lupeaulx to Madame Rabourdin, "what do you think of his Excellency ?" "He is charming.

We must know these poor ministers to appreciate them," she added, slightly raising her voice so as to be heard by his Excellency's wife.

"The newspapers and the opposition calumnies are so misleading about men in politics that we are all more or less influenced by them; but such prejudices turn to the advantage of statesmen when we come to know them personally." "He is very good-looking," said des Lupeaulx.
"Yes, and I assure you he is quite lovable," she said, heartily.
"Dear child," said des Lupeaulx, with a genial, caressing manner; "you have actually done the impossible." "What is that ?" "Resuscitated the dead.